Is Safety Job One?

"Does your company have a safety committee?"

Thankfully, no! We use the common sense method. However, that requires us to hire only people with common sense, which is exactly what we have done.

The last company I worked for was so anal with their committee that they had prizes for near-miss alerts. In other words, if someone saw someone nearly get hurt and reported it, the committee would swoop into action, take pictures, and post them to everyone's emails. We had pictures of rugs with a slight wrinkle in them, electrical cords with a frayed outer sheaths, broken tools, a chair, and other items.

In the common sense world we just fix those issues when we spot them and don't broadcast the event with a celebration and a photo op.

"In the common sense world we just fix those issues when we spot them and don't broadcast the event with a celebration and a photo op."

I hear you. Sounds a little overboard.

Hoowever, on "incidents without injury" and accidents, we do publish the details so that lessons learned are shared.

AT uss, we shared throughout plant, between plants, and the fatality info was shared with competitors. WHatever we could do to make the industry safer transcended commercial issues.

But the trivial issues that you pointed out sounds like "keeping the children interested until the time to blow out the candles on the cake kind of thing."

milo

The crowning achievement was when the manager of the safety department hit not one, but two deer in the same week on his way home.

We have a huge emphasis on safety - to the point of excess, IMHO.

It only takes on fatality to grab you by the collar, and shake you into reality. Fix the damn rugs and frayed cords and focus on the things that will keep your friends and coworkers from going home hurt, or to the emergency room, or.. not going home at all.

Where the hell did you come from, my little Nanny?

Most MEN with enough walking sense to ride the Metro in the rain without getting mugged have a damn fine way of keeping from getting their nads fried by paying attention to what they are doing.

We buy insulated screwdrivers and practice lockout/tagout procedures to keep little Nancies like you from flipping the rippin' disconnect back on just for shites and giggles.

What are YOU doing to stay out of our way???

Do it then!

The sad reality is that managements are too overloaded with trying to keep the wheels of their industry running fast to meet the enormous challenges posed by globalisation, and the dire need to effect cost reduction for retaining their market share. In such a scenario, investing in safety is seen as a necessary evil to keep the statutory authorities off from enjoying a piggy ride on their back! Safety culture can take deep roots ony if the designers do meticulous planning to make all proceses inherently safe, and managements spend adequate time to train their personnel on safety aspects of their jobs. The safety attitude and physical suitability of working personnel also has to be monitored and corrective actionc taken in time.Top managements must take leadership for safety and the front -line managers must adhere to all the prescribed rules and procedures strictly , and never compromise safety for enhancing productivity. Safety must be viewed as an integral part of any activity , and not as an external recipe. As rightly said," Safety and productivity are two sides of the same coin".- S. Saran

what is your full name and where are you from??

Most all accidents occur because someone wasn't paying attention. The safety incentive program rewards people That are safe in the hopes it will get all to watch what they are doing. To me even though it can be a little anal at time it is good way to get people to recognize problems and watch things. What gets me is that allot of the times the people that are having accidents have them regular. We have identified several people in our mill that are "accident prone" and no matter what you do they just won't watch themselves and pay attention. On the other hand our safety department does go overboard at times. They recently gave a man 3 days off with out pay for not using the handrail when going up the stairs. One thing they got me on was because I had a small hole in the toe of my boot I was asked to not come back to work till I got new boots. I was pretty mad but when I thought about it would have been a different story had I stepped into some caustic liquid with the hole there. Most people have enough since to watch what they are doing but to say you only hire these type people is silly. Anyone can and will make mistakes but they are always some that will do it more than others and this is really what the safety incentives program is out to help IMO.

pipewelder

The concept of "proneness to accident" is misplaced and accident statistics don't prove this. As a simple example, it is a fact that accidents in administration / non - works departments are neglegible and even severity rate is v.v.v. low, compared to those working in main production / maintenance units. It would be wrong to label the whole crop of works - personnel as being prone to acccidents.What is significant is the hazards present at the work - place. - S. Saran

At my company, in addition to yearly online training in a variety of non-job related safety issues (what to do if you see a chemical spill, for instance), every meeting is required to begin with a "safety minute". These are actually useful bits of information taken from the collective pool of common sense in the room, or from a near-incident that someone had recently (for instance, the lights are out at such-and-such intersection, or how to properly jump a car battery).

We are also required to write SPAs (safe plan of action) for every non-sitting-at-your-desk action. These can be useful and reasonable (a safety checklist to observe in the lab) or ridiculous, depending on the level of stupidity of your particular manager.

My company actually considers safety the top priority, more important than product - which again, can be good or bad, depending on your manager.

I don't know if it's only in this company (where I work) but I really get upset when somebody bumps into a table and blames the table!!! Every day, I see that someone has "bubble-wrapped" the corner of a table, wall, shelf. How these people manage to make the trip from home to work and back is beyond me. Their house must be nothing but round corners and such.

If I stumped my toe on the bedpost in the morning, my initial thought would not be to wrap it (the post) with protective material....I 'd call myself an idiot for not being careful (looking where I'm going) and go on my way.

Over-protection is probably more dangerous than awareness.

Rant over.

It is never enough to tell personnel to work safe - you must teach them how.

Safety is a full time job, and a good place to start is to have a Job Safety Analyses completed every time a new job is started and everyday before work starts.

Every shift should start with a pre job brief and a JSA filled out and discussed among all supervisors and workers involved. Each new task should have a new JSA completed and a pre-job brief before work starts.

There should be rules about Housekeeping.

There should be a lock-out/tag-out program that is enforced.

STAR (Stop, Think, Act, and Review) should be used as well as Self-Check, Peer-Check.

Each person is responsible for safety, and should be encouraged to stop any job and ask for a review to ensure that the safest way is being followed.

Supervisors should be held accountable for the safety of their workers.

Equipment must be checked before each use, as well as a formal safety check made at a defined period.

We have a very strict safety policy in our mill and it is at time a pain in the butt to follow but I have to admit does lower accidents. I think if someone has being careful on their mind even if it is from just being aggravated by a new safety procedure or rule then the chance that they make a careless move is lessened. We had a death on a paper machine a couple of years ago. He was a very smart and experienced paper maker foreman and was known for doing things by the book. No one really knows what caused the accident but it seems he was snatched into the steam drying cans/rollers and run through and ended up in the basement badly disfigured. It is fairly plain that he got to close to the machine rollers and something grabbed him it could have been a loose guide rope or just a small piece of paper hung up on a pulley. He probably made a move that was considered by himself to be safe and normal operation such as reach out to pull a piece of hung paper out or something very simple. The bottom line is that he made several mistakes at once and it cost him his life. Looking back I am sure if he had followed all the proper steps of shutting down the machine it would have cost the mill several 100 k in loss production but to me it would have been well worth it.

pipewelder

Before you do a job, you should always ask, what is the worst thing that can happen to me, what is the worse thing that can happen to the plant, what is the worse thing that can happen to my fellow workers - what can I do to stop these things from happening.

You want to go home just as you came to work, with all your limbs and your life intact. You do not want to shut down the plant because you did not follow a safe way to do the job, (if you are rushed to do a job just think, it is your fingers, your hand, arm, or life), is it worth it? Can you live with your self if you are the cause of your fellow worker getting injured or killed?

Before you let your self be rushed, is your life,fingers, other limbs, or those of your fellow workers, worth your job?

Safe work should be a priority company wide, but no matter you must live with your self the rest of your life, so I refuse to let anyone pressure me into a unsafe act.

Safety starts with you!

Hi!

I've been working in a factory where the managers were posting on a board the productivity ratio every day.

I've been working in a factory where the plant manager clarified the organization chart. He did put the right person at the right places (fired some as well) and clarified their responsibilities (managers, process engineers, operators ...). He finally asked the front line and senior managers to do their job: "Listen, Make a decision, Make things happen and Rule/Discipline". They were focusing on Safety & Quality & Delivery & Efficiency at the same time.

I'm now working in a factory where the managers are "focusing on safety", where the plant director wears a hi-visibility vest with "safety first" written on the back.

Which one is safe? The second one, of course.

"Focusing on safety" is nonsense! Not considering safety is criminal! Managing safety as well as any other aspect of the business should be normal.

If you are a decision maker, if you have recurrent or urgent safety issues, it means that you have to reconsider your management!

Jul

Oh boy. If a co-worker or superior ever asks my view of safety, my rehearsed response is "Every worker deserves to go home from a day's work with all of the body parts he brought to the job. The wost thing that should happen to him is that he leaves with a bit of fatigue and soiled clothes." I am not facetious here-I do live by this idea.

But, as I have so often repeated to safety equipment salesmen and in-house safety professionals-It matters not how much PPE you purchase-It matters not how much documented training you do-It matters not how many, and what type of awards are given for a time-weighted safety performance. None of those quantities can prove the existence of an effective safety programme!

The ability to work safely is an ingrained attitude beginning first with respect for oneself and second with respect for one's fellow worker. Without this attitude it matters not how much is spent in terms of money and time (money also!)-you do not have a safe workforce. Most insist on working safely-some must be goaded, challenged, or supervised to work safely-some absolutely do not care. The solution to the problems created by the last group is the administration of pink slips.

Safety is truly the result of proper attitude-definitely difficult to purchase and hang on the wall.

Best Regards,

Ing. Robert Forbus

Robert, 100% agree, firstly re body part count, and re importance of attitude. I work in an industry where safety is subordinated to courage. The horse industry is truly in the 19th Century. Eventing is killing one person a month, Formula 1 motor racing, no deaths for 10 years. In eventing, safety measures are rejected because "the horse wouldn't respect the jump". For the full rant http://naturaldriving.co.uk/content_chivalry.php.

I build safe horse drawn vehicles including a completely safe( insert usual disclaimer about Skylab falling on it) wheelchair version, but the British Horse Establishment refuse to speak to me, answer my letters or let me show them the safety features.

They are using spoked wheels, turntable steering and solid tyres on vehicles built in 2008. Spoked wheels are just big blunt scissors where kids and pets might congregate, turntable steering isn't used on family cars for good reasons, and solid tyres are ludicrous, but in the horse world, they still exist, why?

Anyone else out there fighting a combination of snobbery, tradition and respect for cavalry officer type courage, ie charging at massed guns at Balaclava.

Simon

Have you ever seen how many men the Crews who trim trees for the electric companies take to the job?

They all prastice 100% saftey. The spend months training and prasticing so every step, every cut , and all the activites on the job are done safely. Their insruance providers paid for too many needless looses years back and refused to write policeys untill the industry changed. Now this industry enjoys one of the lowest insurance rates overall because of their attention to saftey.

I believe and act and expect everyone on my job to make it a way of life.

But ( I don't ever listen until I hear the but because before the "BUT" it is white wash.

It is a good thing that I don't run a play ground. Why I would have to put safety belts on the swing sets, none slip coatings on the slide, everyone would have to wear safety harness and guess what - it is real hard to cross the monkey bars with 100% tie offs. Where I work we don't follow a six food rule for tie-off, we have a four foot rule!

And where is the permits? Teeder toders - tie offs and hard hats for everyone in the area.

Kids do things everyday, when they are using the playground equipment correctly that would get the men I have working for me fired.

I guess I had better shut up before someone takes the fun out of being a Kid!

You know this is great insight.

Perhaps the difference is that one has free will while playing, but must be protected when working for $$$$ to manage the risks that the dollars would Hide.

milo

I let a rigging direction job go because I was being asked to do it as it had been done, and worse. My Union workers were brave and liked the job because it was unique and a challenge, and would do it however I allowed or directed. If I would call, they would show up. I had taken the job, consulted with them as to how it could be accomplished and made a tool that I redesigned and made again in subsequent years in the course of putting the rig in the air. I finally determined that we had taken our share of chances, and that a bad accident was bound to happen if the climbing was not elimanited. When the property manager did not listen, and I got emergency calls requesting the job be done without proper preparation, practice, or a mind to the weather, that I warned them about, I told them to call the Business Manager of the Union I had hired, and forgot about it. I saw chances were being taken because I was the director, and determined that to elimanate those compulsions towards an unsafe situation required me to completely redisign the rig. Client was unco-operative, and I let the job go. When I was a Key Grip on Film Sets, I and the Director were responsible for Safety. When Vic Morrow and the children in his arms were decapitated, the Director, John Landis, and the Key Grip were personally sued. I don't believe Mr. Landis has Directed any movies for a long time. (Twilight Zone) On one film I had forbid a certain special effect and the crew snuck out with a willing actor who was hurt and told me he understood why I had forbid it after getting hit in the head with pounds of sugar glass. It was lucky he didn't lose the hearing in his ear. My last film job was with Richard Petty on a video about Prostrate Cancer. I'd had to change jobs to primarily carpentry when film and video and stage work was too rare for me to live properly as an independent man. My boss told me to vacum the walls of an addition. I told him that was a painters job. He said, "The clients are going to paint, so I want you to vacum the walls." Guard Rails around the empty stairwell had been taken down to accomidate the "artist" who was supposed to make an artistic spiral staircase. As I walked around vacuming the walls, looking up, I eventually walked into an open hole and fell on a slab of concrete breaking my hand, pelvis, and hip. I recovered and have been able to work as a carpenter, labor, but the jobs I gave away from the recovery bed have never come back. Workmans Comp Insurance does not cover you for other work you might have been able to do. Overall I admire the Safety Systems that are inplace for Aviation, and Motion Pictures. Of dangerous operations like building skyscrapers I have long wanted to know why the building of the Chysler Building in Manhattan beat the normal fatality toll for such buildings, which was one death for each floor. Noone died building the Chysler Building, and it is a fine building to look at, if nothing else. The influence of Pan Am on it may have some bearing, but the whole story is significant from where I sit having taken a fall.

P.S. My paragraph breaks in this program for some reason do not take. I write the paragraph as it appears in my copy with paragraph breaks, but in submit the lines run to be one long paragraph, making it hard to read.

Thank you for sharing your story.

You clearly have had a very interesting career, and you know personally the pain and hardships that your decision helped the others avoid.

milo